DoJ Reportedly Unfreezes Full Tilt Poker Account

"Huge news on the FTP bank account in Ireland today. I rate 99.5% for USA players to be paid out. Some news must be coming very soon."

Tony G was referring to a report that claimed that the United States Department of Justice had unfrozen one of Full Tilt Poker's Irish bank accounts.

The report, which was filed by eGaming Review Magazine (link below), claims that "more than a third of the US$100m to $150m still owed to US players" has now been unfrozen by the DoJ.

The report goes on to say that a "FTP source" says that US players "would not immediately be paid" despite the release of funds.

The article also has a few other interesting tidbits of information, including:

-representatives of Ray Bitar have been trying to find investors that would be willing to buy a piece of Full Tilt Poker, but their efforts have been unsuccessful so far. The injected funds (representatives for Bitar have apparently been looking for up to $150 million) would be used to pay out US players

-Full Tilt continues to negotiate with US authorities in regards to the unfreezing of further bank accounts

-according to the "FTP source" - "Banks that weren’t even subject to restraining orders started shutting down because they thought ‘we’ve got to be careful, the Americans are after us.’ We actually had to ask the prosecutors to call these banks and tell them they weren’t interested in them"

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It's not very surprising to learn that Full Tilt is having a hard time selling a stake in their company. Given all of their current troubles, convincing someone to inject $150 million into the company would be a pretty tough sell.

In terms of payouts to US players - sounds like the company is one step closer towards making this a reality, but a long road still lies ahead.